Dianthus chinensis is a very variable species represented in China by both cultivated and wild plants. In FRPS, the species was divided into eight varieties (treated in synonymy here), all of them occurring as wild plants and var. chinensis also including the cultivated material. No key to the varieties was provided, and the features given in the diagnoses were not always parallel, making it almost impossible to identify any given plant to variety. Moreover, the plants cultivated as ornamentals comprise numerous cultivars. Further research is needed on the species in China and surrounding countries before a satisfactory infraspecific classification can be presented. In the present account, therefore, Dianthus chinensis is treated in the broadest sense.